How Frame Ensemble creates a live film score
Frame Ensemble creates music improvisationally, which is to say that we invent it more or less on the spur of the moment, as we watch the film with the audience. This enables us to create sound which is extremely responsive to the film, closely following the flow of images.
Although our music is created as it is performed, through improvisation, we do prepare for each performance—although not in the way you might think. We begin by watching the film and discussing the kinds of sounds we might make—the ‘sound world’ of the film. Sometimes this might involve adopting or adapting a particular musical idiom (or more than one) or it might be less precise, and more to do with how we want the film to feel for the audience. We always think about how the story works, what its shape is. Sometimes we’ll make some preparatory decisions about who will lead particular scenes or sections, or we might connect a particular instrument to a specific character. We discuss how to begin, aiming for a simple initial idea from which we can move on into the organic process of playing the rest of the film.
What we hardly ever do is plan exactly which notes we’re going to play. Whereas a composer creates a written score by choosing every note, and players reproduce these wishes in performance, for Frame Ensemble, the screen itself is the score. The improvising imagination can become constrained if we are trying to recall a detailed musical plan—rather than focusing on watching the film, and listening to ourselves and each other, and letting the film draw sound out of us.